


The Space Stone

by TheSovereigntyofReality



Series: Time Travelling Son [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Actually Mean to Peg in this One, Child Abuse, Gen, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Not Peggy Friendly, Team Stark, Tony Stark Feels, You Have Been Warned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-12
Updated: 2019-12-12
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:22:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21767542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSovereigntyofReality/pseuds/TheSovereigntyofReality
Summary: Howard, suspecting the it contains an Infinity Stone, reclaims the Tesseract.Stark Mansion gets an unwelcome, and very dangerous, visitor.
Relationships: Edwin Jarvis & Howard Stark & Original Female Character(s), Edwin Jarvis & Tony Stark, Howard Stark & Maria Stark & Tony Stark, Howard Stark/Maria Stark, Peggy Carter & Edwin Jarvis & Howard Stark, Peggy Carter & Howard Stark
Series: Time Travelling Son [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1565638
Comments: 51
Kudos: 774





	The Space Stone

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer: If you recognise it from somewhere else, it isn't mine.**
> 
> Due to the comments made by ZaqMacKraken in the last installment, I've peeled Tony's age from 16 back to 13.

Even as she sat back wearing the nicest pantsuit she owned, Hazel had to call on all of her years of child-rearing not to twitch a single facial muscle as she sat next to Jarvis and watched Howard demand proof of some kind of payoff with the Tesseract.

Carter had been virtually blowing up Howard’s phone for the past couple of days, but he was ignoring her. Of course, if Hazel found out someone was using her money to unlawfully imprison perfectly innocent people (or at least people who hadn’t been proven guilty of anything nefarious), she’d be pretty cranky at them too.

Of course, for Howard, this was about more than just illegally locking up innocent enhanced people and throwing away the key. It was about stopping a shit-storm from landing squarely in his son’s lap. Hazel didn’t know if they could stop it entirely but if they could at least mitigate the damage, that had to be worth something.

Hazel was certain he’d told his wife, because Maria Stark had a look that Hazel knew well; it was a look any mother worth her salt would recognise. And she’d loaned Hazel some jewellery to help her blend into this thing. Not that Hazel could blame them. She’d be the same in their situation.

Howard leaned back from the data and clicked his tongue. ‘So, in other words you have gone nowhere and gotten nothing done with Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S.?’

‘The cube is extremely difficult to understand, Mr. Stark,’ the general (whose name Hazel had forgotten) insisted tightly. Clearly, he could sense where this was going.

Howard folded his hands in front of him. ‘Be that as it may, I have a company to run. I have employees to pay, and other projects with far more progress attached to them to consider. Quite frankly, general, I’m losing too much money on this particular venture. If you cannot show me real results, then effective immediately, I will withdraw the Tesseract.’

Hazel forced down a smirk once again. Howard was taking it anyway, but he had to make it look legitimate. What, as far as Hazel had seen, Peg could never understand was that Howard was a businessman. If something was draining his funds away, he got rid of it. It was annoying to the leeches doing the draining, but it was understandable. And he had the livelihood of every single person under SI’s employ to worry about. He couldn’t be pouring money into something and getting nothing back.

‘I assure you, Mr. Stark, we will get results soon,’ the general insisted with a defeated air.

‘Soon isn’t good enough, general.’ Howard stood up. ‘I’m taking the Tesseract back today.’

And it was still Howard’s property. The general couldn’t say a damn thing about it.

And he knew it.

***

Jarvis’s hand tingled as he carried the case that contained the Tesseract.

If this really did contain an artefact of cosmic energy, he was very uncomfortable carrying it. Still, if they could stop this thing from ever becoming young Tony’s problem then he would carry it to the ends of the earth. Speaking of which, Tony was in the living room when they walked in, slumped across the couch and dead to the world. He was even drooling in his sleep.

Hazel’s eyes, though, instantly narrowed and she moved over. ‘This is Tony, then?’ She then reached out and took a hold of his wrist. Her expression darkened.

Without a word, Mr. Stark moved over. Hazel handed his son’s wrist to him and his eyes widened in alarm. Jarvis quickly moved over himself as Howard Stark pulled his son’s limp body upright. Almost immediately some rancid liquid began dribbling from between his lips. Hazel yanked a blanket from the couch and pulled it over him to catch what was entirely liquid vomit.

Mr. Stark kept a hand on Tony’s shoulder so he didn’t slump over again.

Hazel straightened and glared into a back corner. ‘Are you quite through lurking around in the dark, Peg?’

Jarvis and his employer both glared up into the same corner Hazel was glaring into.

Sure enough Peggy Carter stepped out of the shadows. ‘Relax. It won’t hurt him.’

All three of them looked back at Tony. At this point, his muscles were spasming and Jarvis became painfully aware of the location of the puncture wound in his neck. It didn’t look like it was done carefully either. It looked as though a needle had just been jabbed into his neck. Mr. Stark reached out and rubbed a thumb over the wound.

‘That remains to be seen.’ Hazel cut off whatever Ms. Carter was about to say next and grabbed the landline off the table next to the sofa. She quickly hit 9-1-1. ‘Hello, this is the Stark Mansion. Tony Stark was just drugged in a home invasion. I don’t know.’

Peg glared at her. ‘Don’t make a spectacle of yourself!’

‘Why not?’ Howard snapped back. ‘So you can deny any wrong-doing? I’m only sorry I didn’t think of it first!’

‘Oh,’ Hazel said into the phone. ‘And you might want to call a second ambulance. The trespasser will need one too.’

Peg’s eyes snapped to her face.

‘Dislocated shoulder, and several cuts and lacerations – and that’s just what I can see.’ Hazel’s eyes narrowed. ‘What happened? She tripped down some stairs.’ Hazel then promptly hung up and dropped the phone.

Before Ms. Carter knew what was happening, Hazel grabbed her arm and yanked it hard. There was a loud “pop”, resulting in a scream of pain from the “master spy”, and then Ms. Carter was airborne and heading right for the nearest flight of stairs.

Jarvis would later find out that Mrs. Stark was asleep upstairs, but she woke to the sound of Margaret Carter’s body tumbling down the stairs.

‘At least someone hasn’t lost their touch,’ Mr. Stark remarked dryly.

***

With all the hoo-hah of tending to Tony, and Howard filing trespass and assault charges on Peggy Carter, they didn’t get to have a decent look at the Tesseract until two days later. That included Hazel making sure Howard didn’t take the easy way out and was actually in the room when Tony came to. Until then, it stayed safely in Howard’s lab. The three of them then got to work. The first order of business was to work out how to take the Tesseract apart.

It was easier than it looked.

‘I should’ve done this in the 40s,’ Howard mused as he used the mechanical arms to disassemble the Tesseract.

‘And missed out on the Arc Reactor?’ Hazel asked from the viewing platform where she kept an eye on the power output readings.

‘Fair point. Any idea what an Infinity Stone looks like?’

‘The Ancient One told me it’s about the size of a pebble, perfectly oval in shape, and this one is probably glowing blue.’

‘I’ve found it,’ Howard murmured. ‘Would you look at that...’

Sure enough, Howard peeled away the last of the front of the Tesseract to reveal a glowing blue stone, about the size of a pebble and perfectly oval in shape. He used the mechanical claw to extract it from what was left of the housing unit. Then he lifted it up so all three of them could see it.

‘It’s beautiful...’ Howard whispered. Then he cleared his throat. ‘So, which one is this?’

‘I don’t know.’ Hazel considered it for a moment. ‘The Ancient One has the Time Stone. The other five are Power, Reality, Space, Soul, and Mind. It really could be any of them.’

‘So...if we were to judge what happened to the Red Skull...?’

‘Well, let’s be frank, Steve probably only said what he thought he saw. He understood perspectives and angles but I don’t think he had enough of a scientific understanding to know what actually happened there.’

Howard bit his lips. ‘No. I think you’re right.’ His lips quirked. ‘I know you two didn’t really get along, but you’re right there.’

‘Different personalities, I guess.’ Hazel brushed it off. ‘Anyway, we don’t know if the Red Skull was disintegrated, absorbed, or transported elsewhere.’

‘Absorbed?’ Howard asked.

‘Apparently, the Soul Stone can do that.’ Hazel huffed. ‘Okay, what did you have in mind for your next move now that you’ve got the Stone?’

‘I’ve gotta find a way to get rid of it.’ Howard studied the thing. Beautiful though it may be, it was going to be a large source of his son’s problems.

‘What are you gonna do?’ Hazel demanded. ‘Throw it into a Black Hole?’

Howard was silent.

For just a moment.

‘...Where’s the nearest Black Hole?’

Hazel broke into hysterical giggles.

**Author's Note:**

> The fun thing about OCs in stories from this era is that you can make them address Howard's bad parenting.
> 
> It might come up as a proper storyline later.


End file.
